The first chapter considers a common agency model where two competition authorities share information about a firm under investigation. It shows that information-sharing can sometimes be welfare detrimental unless the authorities coordinate their enforcement policies as well as share information. The reason behind is that the authorities may have different leniency levels and the firm may decide to provide less precise information to one in an attempt to appeal the other. Furthermore it shows that the authorities may want to distort their policies in order to prevent the firm from obscuring the information it provides. The second chapter studies the seller's incentives to provide misleading advice about complex goods such as consumer electronics, banking or phone services. It shows how the incentives to give biased and imprecise advice are affected by the possibility of ex-post litigation, when a court or consumer protection authority investigates how biased the advice is and penalises accordingly. It finds that a more biased advice will also be less precise, thus, a stricter punishment for deceiving consumers also increases precision. The third chapter analyses the impact of trade credit on a relational contract between two vertically related firms. The firms operate in an environment with unobservable shocks, like a developing country or a black market, which create moral hazard in the repayment decision. It shows that the quantity sold in the market will be distorted downwards in order to curb the constrained firm's incentives to steal the credit and derives the optimal repayment scheme.

Financial Arbitrator The legislative introduction of the institute of Financial Arbitrator as the relevant authority for settling out-of-court disputes into Czech law is a relatively new phenomenon, and is related to the interests of consumer protection within the European Union. In particular, the interests of the European Union in this area are to reinforce consumer confidence in the financial market. Given the fact that the majority of consumer disputes are so-called petty disputes, and resolving these disputes before the national courts is too lengthy and costly for consumers, the European Union has placed a duty upon its Member States to introduce the option for consumers, in case of any possible disputes, to be able to turn to the out-of-court dispute settlement authority for assistance in selected areas of the financial market. Any proceedings heard before such authority are free-of-charge and less formalized, thus enabling consumers greater accessibility in protecting their rights against institutions operating in the financial market. The first chapter describes the reasons for the institution of Financial Arbitrator, i.e. it is exactly for the purpose of consumer protection, which should result in increased consumer confidence in the financial market, and the possibility to enforce one's...

Consumer protection is an issue affecting a very broad group of citizens of the European Union. EU reflects customer protection in all its policies. I have focused on electronic communication because of my work experience in that field. In my thesis I am trying to compare my experience with valid legislation. In addition, electronic communication services are used by European consumers every day widespread through society. I have tried to follow the development of EU legislation in electronic communication sector focusing on consumer protection. This topic is very closely connected with price regulation and the whole situation on the electronic communication market. My goal is to define main problems of legislation by using case law and my knowledge from practice. In the first chapter of my thesis, I focus on general consumer protection in EU, which is applicable to all contracts concluded by consumers (unfair terms, contracts negotiated away from business premises etc.). I am pointing out issues I encountered in practice. I also compare implementation of EU legislation by EU member states. Second chapter of my work is concerned with EU regulatory framework of electronic communication valid from 2003 to 2009. I aimed at legislation related to consumer protection. I focused on main problems of the...

The aim of my work is to describe and analyze the European and German consumer protection law, especially the implementation of selected consumer protection directives into German law. Main part of this work deal with the following EU Directives: Directive 1999/44/EC on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees, Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts, Directive 85/577/EEC to protect the consumer in respect of contracts negotiated away from business premise and the Directive 97/7/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts. I've also tried to analyze the German legal regulations and found out the differences and similarities between the German and Czech consumer protection law. My work contains 9 chapters: First chapter defines the basic terms of the consumer protection law like a consumer and a supplier. It deals also with the judicature of the European Court of Justice and German legal regulations and judicature, which extend the consumer's protection to another subjects. Second and third chapter describe the primary and secondary EU consumer law, competence of the EU, consumer law basics included in the primary law and list of secondary legal acts, which regulate the field of consumer protection. Fourth chapter contains the...

VIII Abstract The Internet and private international law This master's thesis deals with the current state and future development of the concept of digital content in the law of European union. A brief history concerning the Brussels- and Rome- community conventions and their replacement with the current regulations is presented in the first part of the thesis, along with several interesting cases of the Court of Justice of the European union. A model international consumer contract for supply of digital content concluded over the internet is used in conjunction with the Pammer/Alpenhof case in order to demonstrate the concept of directed activity within the meaning of the Brussels I recast and Rome I regulations. Next, the Falco and Usedsoft decisions are analyzed, along with possible consequences of the asserted exhaustion of intellectual property rights after first transfer of an intangible copy of copyrighted software, and the implications thereof. Subsequently a short theoretical digression is made to dissect the notion of goods as used by the UN convention on contracts for international sales of goods, in order to determine the limits of the convention vis-à-vis intangibles. The Vienna convention also presents a useful mirror to the (now dead) proposal for Common European sales law (CESL), as the...

Ce sujet concerne la protection du consommateur dans le cadre du commerce électronique. L'objectif de la thèse est de faire une analyse des règles édictées en vue d'adapter les contrats électroniques aux exigences strictes posées par le droit de la consommation. Des règles spéciales sont en effet nécessaires afin de régir un monde virtuel, dématérialisé, où la marchandise est numérique. Ces règles doivent souvent être mêlées aux normes du droit international privé et au droit général de la consommation. Il est important de s'interroger sur la coordination entre les règles classiques de conflits de lois et celles des juridictions au e-commerce? Le droit international privé est-il prêt à faire face au monde immatériel, lui qui s'appuie sur la localisation des actes et faits juridiques ? La problématique réside dans le fait que: les contrats passés en ligne sont avant tout des contrats soumis au droit commun. Mais, en même temps, il serait réducteur de voir le contrat électronique comme un simple contrat. Celui-ci comporte en effet plusieurs aspects qui justifient l'élaboration d'un cadre adapté. Partant de ce constat, il semble que les règles de droit commun sont insuffisantes et que des normes spéciales doivent être mises en place. Ainsi, il importe d'étudier les mesures prises par les législateurs européen, français et égyptien, précisément, dans le but de résoudre les difficultés identifiées au fur et à mesure du renouvellement et du développement des techniques. En effet, on constate, l'émergence d'un droit propre au commerce électronique qui traite de ses différents aspects et notamment de la protection des parties vulnérables tel que les cyber-consommateurs. On assiste aujourd'hui à une période d'effervescence législative: une dizaine de directives sur le commerce électronique, les contrats à distance, les services financiers… ont été adoptés dans le cadre communautaire et à peu près le même nombre de lois a été promulguées au niveau interne pour assurer leurs transpositions et plus largement les stratégies d'améliorations des systèmes juridiques, de mises à jour des législations économiques, de renforcement des protections mises en œuvre par les gouvernements qui aspirent ou adhèrent aux mutations de l'économie internationale et enfin l'adaptabilité des droits internationaux à la résolution des litiges en matière de commerce électronique. Comme traitée dans la Deuxième Partie de cette thèse, pour permettre des transactions fiables, de grande qualité en ligne concernant les pays arabes et les pays en voie de développement, il faut des systèmes de télécommunications modernes offrant des services à large bande et des services mobiles à des prix abordables pour les entreprises et les particuliers. Il faut qu'il existe aussi un milieu favorable avec une concurrence forte entre les fournisseurs de télécommunications. En effet, il faut une véritable volonté ! Ces éléments sont primordiaux pour continuer au développement du commerce électronique tout en appliquant les règles relatives à la protection du consommateur. Et aussi, elles sont indispensables pour produire des applications utiles, de grande qualité. Dans ce domaine aussi, les pouvoirs publics peuvent jouer un rôle vital en veillant à ce que les écoles secondaires et professionnelles enseignent comme connaissances spécialisées nécessaires pour aider à l'avènement d'une véritable économie numérique durable, capable de s'adapter aux besoins des utilisateurs. / This subject concerns the protection of the consumer in the context of electronic commerce. The objective of the thesis is to make an analysis of the rules laid down to adapt electronic contracts to the strict requirements of consumer law. Indeed, special rules are required to govern a world virtual, cloud, where the commodity is digital. These rules must often be mixed standards of private international law and the general law of consumption. It is important to investigate coordination between the classical rules of conflict of laws and the courts to e-commerce? Private international law is ready to face the world intangible, which relies on the location of the acts and made legal? The problem lies in the fact that: the contracts online are primarily subject to common law contracts. But, at the same time, it would be simplistic to see the electronic contract as a contract. In fact, it has several aspects that justify the development of a suitable framework. From this observation, it seems that the rules of common law are insufficient and that special standards must be put in place. Thus, it is important to consider the measures taken by European, french and Egyptian lawmakers specifically, to address the difficulties identified as the renewal and the development of techniques. Indeed, there is the emergence of a law specific to electronic commerce which deals with its different aspects and, in particular, the protection of the vulnerable parties such as cyber-consumers. We are today witnessing a period of legislative ferment: a dozen of directives on electronic commerce, distance contracts, financial services... have been adopted in the community context and roughly the same number of laws promulgated at the domestic level to ensure their transpositions and broader strategies of legal systems enhancements, updates of the economic lawsbuilding the protections implemented by Governments that want or adhere to changes in the international economy and finally the adaptability of the international rights to the resolution of disputes in e-commerce. As discussed in the second part of this thesis, to enable reliable transactions, high-quality online regarding Arab countries and developing countries, must be modern telecommunications systems providing broadband and mobile services at affordable prices for businesses and individuals. It is necessary that there is also a supportive environment with strong competition among telecommunications providers. Indeed, it takes a real desire! These elements are crucial to continue the development of e-commerce while applying the rules relating to the protection of the consumer. And also, they are essential to produce useful applications, of high quality. In this area too, Governments can play a vital role in ensuring that secondary and professional schools teach as necessary expertise to assist in the emergence of a real digital economy sustainable, adaptable to the needs of users.

This diploma thesis was about problems of food law in Czech Republic. The aim of this diploma thesis was finding opinion and attitudes of Czech consumers and finding out how works supervisory authority in this part of food law (mass caterers). In the theoretical part was explained who is consumer and how is consumer protection in Czech Republic. There was described actual wording of food law legislation and supervisory authorities. In work was analyzed statistics. Practical part of this diploma thesis was divided into two parts. First part was focused on consumers. There was an online survey. This research investigated if consumers were interested in modern trends in catering. How often they eat out of home. Whether consumers know a supervisory authorities in Czech food law. If they know project Potraviny na pranýři. Second part was focused on supervisory authorities and mass caterers. There were in-depth controlled interviews with supervisory authorities like SVS, SZPI, KHS. For finding the opinions of all the were in-depth controlled interviews with representatives of school cafeteria, restaurant and coffee house. Based on the results obtained by this research, there were recommended three suggestions for improvement.

The objective of the work is to evaluate the achieved level of development of consumer protection, in particular in the European and Czech context, as well as to analyse the current state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic, with a special emphasis on the analysis of the actual protection and enforcement of consumers' rights in the Czech Republic. The following three working hypotheses are set out in the work: Hypothesis No. 1: The pre-condition for enforcing consumer protection is improving on a world wide scale. Hypothesis No. 2: The consumer policies of the Czech Republic respect the European principles of consumer protection, and form the framework for the effective enforcement of consumers' rights. Hypothesis No. 3: The actual enforcement of consumers' rights depends not only on the working of the relevant state authorities, but also on the level of knowledge among the consumers, and their willingness and ability to enforce their rights. The work is divided into four basic parts. The first part is devoted to the theoretical solutions, and the economic context of consumer protection. It attempts to answer the question of whether consumer protection has some theoretical justification. The text shows that the substantiation of consumer protection consists, in particular, in the levelling of informational asymmetry, which is one of the most frequent causes of market failure. Therefore, it is consumer protection in the form of state intervention in the economy which reduces dis-equilibrium on the market. The second part analyses the development of consumer protection, and evaluates the state of consumer protection in the world and European context. The world context is understood in the global scale, and its analysis should confirm, or overturn, the first working hypothesis. Upon analysis of the relevant data it may be stated that the findings of this part of the work confirm the first hypothesis. Ever more countries belong to that group of countries which can provide their citizens with a high standard of consumer protection, such as that normally envisioned in U.N. policy. The European context is viewed through the prism of our membership in the EU, and its analysis is vital to understanding the state of consumer protection in the Czech Republic. The third part of the work is devoted to the analysis of the development and evaluation of consumer protection in the Czech Republic; together with the previous part, this part provides sufficient basis for the evaluation of the second hypothesis. It must be said that, with a few small exceptions, the legislative provisions for the protection of consumers in the Czech Republic are completely harmonised with consumer protection legislation in the whole EU, in other words, the European framework of consumer protection is completely respected. On the other hand, more detailed analyses of the development of consumer protection in the CR, and analysis of government consumer policy, has revealed certain reservations in this area. The second hypothesis, then, could be confirmed; nonetheless, in the creation of an effective framework for the enforcement of consumers' rights, there is still some room for improvement. The fourth part concentrates mainly on the evaluation of research among consumers, which should confirm, or overturn, the third hypothesis. The research was questionnaire based, and, subsequently, there were processed questionnaires from 313 respondents. The results were interpreted in connection with demographic factors, such as: age, education, sex and profession. Analysis of these results confirms the third hypothesis. That concerns, mainly, the willingness, knowledge and ability of the consumers, which have significant influence on the actual enforcement of their consumer rights. These attributes are individual qualities, which do not play any significant role in following demographic characteristics.

Conscious and carefully planned decision making is a part of management containing planning, organization, operative management, motivation and control. All these components of management as well as their effective functioning are dependent on knowledge, data transfer and information processing and holding. If their acquisition is not or cannot be dependent on an activity of deciding subject itself (or dependent on an optional cooperation with other subjects) and data and information are essential and determinant in social point of view, then the third persons must be bound to provide them. A duty to provide such information must be set by legal rules. For purposes of this work, an information duty is specified as a legally binding duty of certain subject to provide information to another subject whose breach results in a rise of legal liability. Objects of this duty are data and information recognized by legal regulations as relevant for control and decision process. Subject of this work is a description and subsequent analysis of regulations of information duty in business relations in domestic legislation, especially information duty of entrepreneurs towards customers and consumers. Fighting this aim, contract basis of information duty is accentuated. The analysis of information duty is further coupled with characteristics of elementary legal tools how to protect the authors, providers and receivers of data and information, and also with the essential characteristics of public and private responsibility for breach of information duty.

The thesis compares national legal regulations in area of E-Commerce in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. The comparison has been made from several points of view. The first section of the thesis focuses on the area of incorporation of three European directives (93/13/ES on unfair terms in consumer contracts, 97/7/ES on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts and 2000/31/EU on electronic commerce), which frame consumer protection on the European level in respect of e commerce contracts. In the next section basic principles of contract law are compared in each of the surveyed legal systems. Each of the contract related conditions are compared step by step to their partner conditions in the other two countries (general terms and conditions, information duty of entrepreneur, consumer's right of withdrawal). The very last section covers an international civil law, and its effects on consumer protection as analyzed in compared nations. The comparison has proved my primary assumption that all three legal systems in the area of E Commerce almost identical, aside from the major difference in the definition of the term consumer itself.